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Topaz Labs releases Topaz Studio 2 ,"a workflow devoted entirely to creative photo post-processing." It features (1) cutting edge filters, (2) powerful selection & masking, and (3) fully non-destructive layers, according to Topaz. Included are AI Clear, Impression, Glow, Texture, and others.

I just used it today and I am very impressed. AI clear runs faster than ever. They did drop the heal, crop, and lens adjustments from Topaz Studio, hopefully they will be added back in. At $79 it is a great value.

I've been playing with it all morning and I really don't like the workflow compared to the original. Creating your own multi-filter presets is different but no more difficult than in the past but retrieving them is a pain. In the old, the software remembered the preset you used last and even if you just started the software it was a simple one click to apply your previously created personal presets. In the new version, every photo starts off without the preset, you then have to go through a number of mouse clicks, that rely on quite a bit of memory to retrieve your preset and apply it. You can assign that preset as a favorite but it does not show up in your favorites list. the only thing that shows up in your favorites is individual filters that you ahve designated as a favorite and then it does not remember what settings you prefer for that favorite.

From my perspective it is a huge step backwards in this regard.

I do agree that some of the functions and especially AI Clear are much faster but overall this version is a significant slow down for the way I work with Topaz Studio.

EJ, the notice I received from Topaz states:  

And not to worry! Since you currently own Topaz Studio Legacy, you will still be able to use the original products in addition to our new software! Please note presets created in the original version of Topaz cannot be imported into the new Topaz Studio 2 yet. This feature will be coming soon!

Hopefully this coming update will straighten out some of the problems you noted.

Installed the 2.01 update this AM, same issues as 2.0.  And I noticed a new one, something is going on where it noticeably blurs my photos.  I can take a photo into Studio, apply some adjustment filters and even if I leave them all leave set to zero and then go back to photoshop and it's like a light blur or desharpening has occurred.  I then took the same photo into the old version and the resultant image did not have any problem.  Studio 2 is on the do not use list for me right now until they get some issues ironed out.

A little more investigation. It seems that AI Clear in Studio 2 is the culprit that blurs my photos in Studio 2.

E.J. Peiker wrote:A little more investigation.  It seems that AI Clear in Studio 2 is the culprit that blurs my photos in Studio 2.

Have you tried Studio 2 ver 2.0.2 ?

DChan wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:A little more investigation.  It seems that AI Clear in Studio 2 is the culprit that blurs my photos in Studio 2.

Have you tried Studio 2 ver 2.0.2 ?

I looked for an update at 2:00PM Pacific Time (GMT -7) and there wasn't one.  Your message was posted at 7:00PM Pacific Time so they may have released an update in that 5 hour span.  My production system hasn't been started yet today at 5:43AM Pacific Time

Here is a comparison of two identical 100% crops of a very distant mountain ridge, the first in the new AI Clear, the second in the old which is identical to what Denoise AI creates using the AI clear rendering model - this is with the just released 2.02 version - clearly there is a problem with AI Clear:

Topaz found the problem and just released 2.03.  You know software was not ready for prime time when there is a release a day...

Here's the rendering on 2.03 - by the way I was able to replicate what I posted above on two different Windows system with two completely different graphics processors, nVidia and Intel:

Studio 2 is now up to ver 2.0.3. The way it's going looks like we could have ver 10 by the end of tomorrow


Anyhow, E.J., just tested with some of my photos (raw files imported straight to Studio v2.0.3), I don't see the kind of blur you were experiencing.

DChan wrote:Studio 2 is now up to ver 2.0.3. The way it's going looks like we could have ver 10 by the end of tomorrow


Anyhow, E.J., just tested with some of my photos (raw files imported straight to Studio v2.0.3), I don't see the kind of blur you were experiencing.

Mine were TIF files from my archive.  Regardless they found what was causing it and fixed it

Guess what? 2.0.4 is available 

DChan wrote:Guess what? 2.0.4 is available 

ROFLMAO!

v 2.0.4
July 31, 2019

New Feature:

- Add Filter Panel now remembers last viewed state (Filters, Favorites, Recent)
- Add Look Panel now remembers last viewed state (category, sort, thumbnail size)
- TS1 Custom and Favorite Effects can now be converted to TS2 My Looks (can be ran more than once, overwrites any look in My Looks with the same name)

Now at 2.0.5


v 2.0.5
August 1, 2019

New Feature:

Histogram is now available
Filter Presets are now available
TS1 Custom and Favorite Effects can now be converted to TS2 My Looks (can be ran more than once, overwrites any look in My Looks with the same name)

Change:

Updated UI in Filter control panels to not clip top control

Fix:

Fixed issue where sometimes a recent filter would not add to the effect stack when clicked

Upgraded to 2.0.3. and then 2.0.5........ Perhaps I should wait for 2.0.10 for the next upgrade. At this rate it should be available next week!

At least they don't ask you to pay a monthly fee

Yay, 2.0.6 is here. !!

I was wondering if Topaz had gone out of business or something...with no update for a while

DChan wrote:Yay, 2.0.6 is here. !!

I was wondering if Topaz had gone out of business or something...with no update for a while

Yeah, but then it is August - holiday season